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Saturday, January 20, 2018

First things first: If you've looked at the C1 Downloads page lately, you might have noticed that most of the images read "Please upgrade your Photobucket account to enable third-party hosting" instead of actually showing what the breeds looked like.

Rather than deal with this questionable business decision, I opted to just reupload the images via Blogger's natural image uploading function. Now all the images should display properly.

Originally that was all that was going to be here, but I figured I might as well say a few things about my current frame of mind concerning Creatures.

And that, sadly, is that it's completely unchanged from before. My motivation for Creatures-related things is still zero, and for mostly the same reasons. So chances are the silence here is going to remain, though I'll still do my best to make sure all my stuff remains available in this era of dying Creatures websites.

While I'm here, I figured I might as well advertise Pilla's Discord Server, the Caos Coding Cave. I hopped in there a while back, and while it's been just as quiet as the rest of the community (which I'm really not helping much) I haven't really regretted it.

It is worth mentioning it's aimed at Creatures development, though. For non-developing people there's the Norn Nebula server, which I don't have a link to. I haven't joined that server, for reasons I'm not stating in public.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Believe it or not, my motivation for this series is actually starting to climb back up, somewhat. It's probably never going to be what it once was, but maybe I'll actually get back into playing the games again. Even though the community feels like it's dying in this day and age, there's still cool stuff getting churned out.

I guess here I'll talk about the biggest problem when it comes to returning to Creatures: the fact that so much fuss has been raised about how broken everything is, at least in C3/DS in particular. How this specific part of the brain doesn't work right. How that digestive system function actually doesn't function. And so on.

C3/DS creatures do work fine even with all these "broken" issues (the fact I've run multiple generation 100+ wolfling runs successfully is testament to that), but even though hearing about it just gives me the impression the genomes I use are "inferior" in some way. It's...not a good feeling.

Besides that, there are some changes introduced in other genomes that I'd like to bring into my breeds. However, the base genome I've been using has been getting pretty bloated, so I feel like I should just start fresh with a new base genome.

Why make a brand new base genome as opposed to, say, using the CFF or 2017 genomes? Short answer: Pride. I've posted a few times about how the CFF aren't to my taste, and I still don't like them now. Also, using the work of another community member instead of my own just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather base my breeds on a genome of my own devising, because breaking down and using such a genome just feels like an admission of defeat: that ultimately, I'm inferior to the creators of the CFF and 2017 genomes.

Never mind the fact I've fully adopted the CFE at this point, never mind the fact my current base genome incorporates CFF edits, and never mind the fact that all this is based on CL's work anyway. Sense? What fun is there in making sense?
Let's ignore my need for therapy for now and get back to the topic at hand. At one point in time, I thought about completely gutting a CFE genome (that is, deleting everything except the genus, brain, gait, and poses) and replacing it with a biochemistry of my own devising, but I decided against that. I just don't have the patience for that kind of work, especially not with the low level of motivation I have now.

My alternative plan would still be based on the CFE genome, because I've accepted that at this point and I like pretty much everything that it introduced. I'd also include the following stuff:

Having hunger being based on the levels of nutrients rather than arbitrary stimuli. The 2017 genomes also do this, and admittedly that's where the inspiration came from. But I can also point out that the C1 Forest/Ron Norns also did this, and thus claim that it's also been done officially and thus is more acceptable.

Some other nutrient balancing, since one of the "broken" things I've been hearing about is that creatures tend to have an excess of nutrients (particularly adipose tissue) all the time. I'll probably need to do this anyway just to incorporate the above-mentioned feature.

Some means of preventing overeating. Be it through the CFF Fullness Lobe (which I'm not entirely sure works anyway; I've never noticed a real difference between creatures with it and without it) or some other means.

Some means of preventing lactate mutations from keeping creatures limping forever. I could live with or without a full-on lactate oxidation cycle; a lot of my breeds are amphibious anyway so the drowning survival rate isn't too much of a draw. But having creatures get stuck limping forever because excess lactate mutation results in dead muscles is irritating.

Colortrue pigments, or that is having the offspring of two colored parents have a mix of colors between the two parents. In my base genomes this'd be able to mutate for the simple fact the population in a wolfling run will all become the same color if the pigment/pigment bleed genes couldn't mutate. This'd probably screw the pooch entirely in terms of breeding compatibility, but it makes breeding interesting.

Moving the disease reactions to appropriate organs as opposed to having them all be in the Immune System. I believe this is how C2 did it, and it feels more natural that way than as it is by default. By default, a dead Immune System means that a creature can't fight off illness properly...but it also means that a lot of diseases won't effect the creature fully. Not exactly realistic.

That's the major stuff I'd want, though I'd probably incorporate some other small edits into the genome as I made it.

It's still going to be pretty extensive, as testing's going to be needed and whatnot. Still, I think this sounds a little more palatable then completely making a new genome from scratch (effectively). Will I actually get off my rear and actually make this genome? Too early to tell. I think I'd like to ease back into simply playing Creatures first before I start the hardcore development. Maybe I'll give the 2017 genomes a fair shake beforehand.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Just a short post to say that I've now uploaded the Swimming Agent V3 to the Realm. It should be available in the Downloads section, or you could save yourself some clicking and just get it here.

V3 was my sole release for the CCSF 2016. Compared to V2, it makes swimming look more natural, as well as fixes the bug where creatures would "jump up" a level when starting to swim. I think it's an improvement over V2, at least.

As a general status update, I'm slightly more interested in doing something Creatures-related than my last post. I wouldn't expect anything big, or anything at all for that matter, though. Chances are this blog's just going to remain quiet. If I do post something, it's probably going to be something like a metaroom review.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

While I don't have much enthusiasm for Creatures anymore, as people have probably guessed from my last post, there are still some things I'd like to do for this game. Sadly, they're all hindered by either my aforementioned lack of enthusiasm, the fact that I can't do them at all due to lack of skills/still active and willing people able to provide said skills, or both. But I figured I might as well make a list of them. Maybe it'll inspire me to actually do them, learn how to get the skills I need to do them, or get someone who'd be willing to help me do them.

Artemia Sea Update: This room's gotten a bunch of updates already, yet I'm still not entirely happy with it. I guess as the product I've been most pleased with I'd like to make it the best it can be.

Mapping update: Some of the upper crags have narrows that are too tight for creatures. And that tunnel separating the left and middle areas of the room is a pain to navigate for both creatures and critters. Sadly, this requires editing graphics, which I can't do.

Doors: I've been playing around with the Past Seas doors in Artemia Sea, and I've found that doors are great for getting creatures to spend some time in the upper areas of the room rather than sitting near the bottoms. So I figure it'd be nice to have the room have some doors of its own. Alas, I can't make sprites, and I just don't want to reuse the Past Seas doors.

Coding update: I'd like to fix some of the critters so that they're less likely to fly above the water's surface or just made more efficient in general. Maybe make it so they make detritus for detritus-eating creatures.

Chione Update: This room could really use some native ecology, if not some native toys and a few flavor touches. Again making entirely new sprites is out of my expertise, and mea's both not been very active and has been having computer troubles as of late.

Sadly, this does mean Chione's not getting an update this year; there's no more changes I can think of that the infrastructure would need, and I can't make sprites for entirely new stuff.

Past Seas update: This room could really use a coding overhaul, since I've learned a lot in the time since I've first made it.

Aquatilis Caverna V5: For a while I've had the thought of giving this room a coding overhaul (among other things, the critters and plants could stand to be fully interactive). The full idea I had was to give both AC1 and AC2 an overhaul, and then make it so that you could inject either room's ecology into the AC Pod.

Plus, it'd be nice to give AC some doors as well, since it's even more expansive than Artemia Sea, and not only would doors give swimming creatures more reason to fully explore the rooms, it'd help non-swimmers get around them too. Alas, this would need new sprites that I can't provide.

It'd also be nice to make up for the lack of certain food items (there's almost no "food" in either area; in fact, I don't think there's any "food" at all in either room. The supply of "fruit" is also severely limited), or maybe just adding some new stuff to freshen them up. Again, my lack of spriting ability gets in the way here.

While I'm thinking of metarooms, a brand new freshwater-themed metaroom would be nice. This is even more of a pipe dream than updating already existing metarooms, though; I can't sprite, and furthermore I don't know if I have in me to code a completely new metaroom and associated ecology from scratch.

Flesheater Grendels: I called this project my magnum opus back when I first talked about it, and it'd be nice to actually finish them and release them before my time in the CC is up. However, I'd probably have to remake them from scratch since their current genome is horribly outdated. I've also learned that the stimulus for hitting creatures also applies to hitting everything (e.g. a creature who gets food from hitting creatures will also get it from hitting a gadget).

Learning to make copy-paste metarooms: Copy-paste metarooms are things like Past Seas and the Grendel Hideout. Out of all types of metarooms, this is the kind I'd probably be most adept at making. Alas, there's no good tutorials for making this kind of room (the old tutorial from CCSF 2006 just says 'this is easy' without explaining anything).

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Let's get the good news out of the way first: with help from Crabcat at Creatures Caves, I've managed to remember and recover all of my downloads from Creatures @ CU7. Not only that, but I've also backed up all my Norn Adoption Center breeds as well; while that website is currently still up, I felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Now you should be able to find everything I ever made right here at the Realm, in the appropriate Downloads section.

Well, except my Norn Adoption Center adoptions. I suppose I could put those here too if enough people want them, but for now I don't think they're high priority for me.

The thing is that my interest in actually playing the games has been completely abysmal for a while. My tastes in video games have changed a lot since I've started this blog; these days, I'd much rather be playing something with a good story and characters, or failing that at least fun combat and bosses. Creatures just doesn't cut it anymore.

Furthermore...I've said it a million times before, but I'm going to say it again. The community just isn't what it used to be. A lot of the old timers, including a lot of the community's best developers, haven't been around in ages and may never return. What's left just doesn't seem to display the same kind of spirit. It's not overly motivating, to say the least.

This isn't to say I'm abandoning the Creatures Community. Even if I don't intend on developing any more, I still like being a part of the Community and will do my part to support it. Heck, for all I know someday I'll find a way to reinvigorate my passion for this game and start churning out stuff once more. It's just looking really unlikely I'll ever make another addon for this game, or even update this blog much after the fact.

...Well, I do have one last surprise in the works. I don't know when I'll finish it, but hopefully it'll be up soon. Keep an eye out for it!